Occult sciences explained without taboos
of reading
Pendulums, runes, tarot, ancient necromancy, bibliomancy, medieval divination
The word occult literally means “hidden.” Contrary to the Hollywood cliché, the occult sciences are not solely a matter of black capes, dripping candles, and dark pacts. They designate a whole collection of knowledge, symbols, practices, and techniques intended to probe what eludes ordinary perception: fate, the invisible, the unconscious, the memory of the dead, and signs.
In the Gothic universe, these practices resonate in a very particular way. They speak of boundaries: between life and death, light and shadow, visible and invisible, rational and intuitive. They also form an incredibly rich symbolic grammar that feeds the aesthetic of engraved runes, illustrated tarot cards, grimoires, pentacles, and home altars.
This article offers an in-depth immersion into some of the major occult sciences:
the pendulum and dowsing
divinatory runes
tarot as a symbolic language
ancient necromancy, far from the caricatures
bibliomancy, or divination through books
medieval divinatory arts
With, in each case: historical insight, practical elements, internal currents, legends, and a symbolic focus—to nourish both the scholarly Goth and the curious person stepping into the world of esotericism for the first time.
1. The pendulum: from dowsing to Gothic intuition
1.1 Brief history of the divinatory pendulum
The pendulum did not begin with the New Age. Pendular objects used to detect water sources, minerals, or to “interrogate” invisible forces have been found since antiquity and in several cultures:
Ancient Egypt: stone and metal pendants have been found that may have served as divinatory or detection tools.
Ancient China: certain texts refer to practices of geomancy and the locating of telluric currents using rods or suspended objects.
Greece and Rome: divination using suspended objects is mentioned in descriptions of oracular practices.
However, it was not until the 18th–19th centuries that dowsing became structured as a pseudo-discipline in Europe: priests, country doctors, mesmerists, and occultists became fascinated with the idea that certain individuals could detect “waves” or “fluids” using a pendulum or rod.
In the modern Gothic universe, the pendulum has become a discreet but powerful symbol: a vector between the visible and the invisible, a tiny object that echoes great questions.
1.2 How does the pendulum work? The two main readings
Even if everyone has their own interpretation, two visions dominate:
Energetic vision
The pendulum reacts to subtle fields: magnetic fields, waves, human “energies,” charged places, or imbued objects.
The movement of the pendulum is the mechanical translation of an invisible interaction.
The dowser becomes a sort of living antenna.
Psychic / psychological vision
The pendulum amplifies micro-unconscious movements of the hand, linked to the intuition or subliminal knowledge of the person.
We sometimes speak of the ideomotor effect: the body responds to a question before the mind, without our being aware of it.
The pendulum does not “hear” spirits, but rather “gives voice” to what we already know, or to what we project.
In a Gothic reading, these two visions are not contradictory: they converge on a key point—the pendulum tells us something about the relationship between the invisible and the interiority.
1.3 Pendulum shapes and their “branches”
Not all pendulums are alike, and their shapes sometimes follow symbolic logic:
Conical pendulum: very common, simple, precise.
Egyptian pendulum (called Isis, Osiris, Karnak): derived from “Egyptianizing” reconstructions of the 19th century, supposed to be more “receptive” or “transmitting.”
Crystal or natural stone pendulum: associated with the symbolic properties of the stone (amethyst, obsidian, quartz, etc.).
Witness pendulum: with a compartment to insert hair, a sample, etc., intended for searching (person, object).
Branches / schools of dowsing:
Medical dowsing (detecting imbalances, highly controversial)
Dowsing of places (searching for water sources, geobiology)
Divinatory dowsing (questions, decision-making, work with cards)
1.4 Gothic symbolism of the pendulum
The pendulum is a needle oscillating between two extremes: yes / no, truth / illusion, light / shadow.
In a Gothic mise-en-scène, it can symbolize:
suspended time
the inner balance before a decision
the thin thread connecting body and soul
the silent dance of invisible forces
It becomes the extension of the hand… as if we were giving the unconscious a microphone, but an elegant one, often made of aged metal or dark crystal.
2. Runes: sacred alphabet, sharp oracle
2.1 Historical origins of runes
The runes are primarily a writing system used by Germanic and Nordic peoples.
The oldest known alphabet is the Elder Futhark (24 characters), used from about the 2nd to the 8th century.
Later, simplified forms appear: Younger Futhark (16 runes), then Anglo-Saxon adaptations, etc.
Runes were:
engraved on stone, wood, weapons, amulets
used to mark names, brief formulas
sometimes mixed with magical formulas, blessings, or curses
The word “rune” is related to a root meaning “secret, whisper, mystery.” The writing itself therefore carries an aura of secrecy.
2.2 From writing system to oracle
In contemporary popular culture, runes are mostly perceived as a divinatory tool.
This practice draws from several sources:
Runic inscriptions that implore protection, victory, luck.
Medieval runic poems that provide a symbolic “meaning” for each rune.
Mythological sources, notably the myth of Odin hanging from Yggdrasil, pierced by his own spear, receiving the revelation of the runes after nine nights of suffering.
Runes thus become a bridge between fate and individual will, an alphabet charged with archetypes.
2.3 The major runic branches
A distinction is made between:
Elder Futhark – 24 runes
Often used in modern divination
Each rune = a concept (wealth, strength, travel, obstacle, joy, etc.)
Younger Futhark – 16 runes
Later, more streamlined
Less used today as an oracle, but very present in historical reconstructions.
Anglo-Saxon Futhorc – 26 to 33 runes
Richer, more complex
Integrates new sounds and phonetic nuances.
2.4 In practice: what does a runic reading look like?
Without entering into a full manual, a few concepts:
One generally draws one or more runes from a small bag.
Each rune is interpreted according to:
its name
its runic poem
its place in the reading
its upright / inverted position (depending on the systems)
Examples of meanings (Elder Futhark):
FEHU: wealth, resources, vital energy, circulation.
THURISAZ: brute force, obstacles, aggressive protection.
ANSUZ: speech, inspiration, message, divinity.
ISA: ice, stillness, stagnation, forced patience.
RAIDO: travel, movement, quest, alignment of trajectory.
HAGALAZ: rupture, crisis, uncontrollable event (like hail).
The point of runes is not to “predict” in the naive sense, but to highlight dynamics: what is blocked, what must be transformed, what must be accepted.
2.5 Gothic symbolism of the runes
Runes have a hard, angular aesthetic, carved with an axe.
They evoke:
the tombstone
runic stelae standing in misty landscapes
the cold, the harshness, the fatality
the pact carved into matter
In a Gothic atmosphere, they become traces of an ancient world that still speaks—an alphabet of ashes and frost.
3. Tarot: a Gothic theater of archetypes
3.1 Historical origins of tarot
The tarot appeared in 15th-century Europe (notably Northern Italy) as a card game intended for the nobility: tarocchi.
The cards were used for playing, not for questioning the future.
It was starting in the 18th century that occultists like Court de Gébelin, then Éliphas Lévi, saw in the tarot:
a book of hidden wisdom
a compendium of universal symbols
a system linked to the Kabbalah, astrology, and sacred letters
In the 19th–20th century, the Golden Dawn, followed by authors like Papus, Wirth, Waite, and Crowley, structured powerful esoteric systems based on the tarot.
3.2 Composition of a “classic” tarot
A divinatory tarot traditionally consists of 78 cards:
22 major arcana: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, The Nameless Arcana (Death), Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World.
56 minor arcana: grouped into four suits (Cups, Pentacles, Wands, Swords) with Ace, 2 to 10, Page, Knight, Queen, King.
The major arcana represent the major stages of a path of transformation, the deep forces that run through life.
The minor arcana detail daily life, interactions, and concrete situations.
3.3 Branches and traditions of tarot
Tarot of Marseille: medieval / renaissance iconography, austere, highly symbolic.
Rider-Waite-Smith: early 20th century, rich iconography, illustrated scenes on all the minor arcana (very widely used today).
Thoth Tarot (Crowley & Frieda Harris): highly esoteric, dense system, steeped in Kabbalah, astrology, and ceremonial magic.
Modern thematic tarots: gothic, vampiric, wicca, dark fantasy, etc., which use the general structure but change the imagery.
3.4 Concretely: a tarot practice
Tarot can be practiced in very different ways:
“Classic” divination
Cross spread, three-card spread, situation spread.
Question asked → cards interpreted as trends, blockages, resources.
Psychological / introspective work
The cards serve as symbolic mirrors of internal states.
Projections, fears, and desires are explored in the form of images.
Meditative practice
One meditates on an arcanum (e.g., The Hermit, Death, The Moon) to explore a deep theme.
In a gothic context, the Death card is not a scarecrow, but a reminder of inevitable transformation; The Tower becomes the moment when false structures collapse; The Moon embodies the inner night, the unconscious, fascinating illusions.
3.5 Gothic symbolism of the tarot
Tarot is a theater of shadows and light:
medieval, crowned, masked, hieratic figures
night skies, lightning, falls
skeletons, devils, angels, stars
It offers the gothic an interior decor: a house of cards where each room (arcanum) is a psychic space to visit.
4. Antique necromancy: the dialogue with the dead before the caricature
4.1 What necromancy (really) was
The term necromancy comes from the Greek nekros (dead) and manteia (divination).
Originally, it refers to the practice of questioning the dead to obtain advice, prophecies, and warnings.
In several ancient cultures:
People believed that the dead, having left the illusion of life, saw certain aspects of fate or karmic consequences more clearly.
Necromancers did not “resurrect” the dead in the modern sense; they sought to make contact with them within strict ritual contexts.
4.2 Necromancy among the Greeks and Romans
In ancient Greece:
There were sanctuaries dedicated to the dead (such as the Nekromanteion, an oracular sanctuary of the dead) where the living came to consult spirits.
Epic tales, like the Odyssey, describe Odysseus performing a ritual to bring up the soul of the seer Tiresias.
These rituals involved:
a sacred place, often underground or near a river
offerings: blood, wine, milk, honey
invocations, sometimes nocturnal
In Rome, necromancy was officially frowned upon, but practiced on the fringes: by seers, sorceresses, and liminal figures.
4.3 Necromancy, ancestors, and lineages
In other traditions, it is the relationship to ancestors that dominates:
Consulting the dead to obtain protection, blessing, and wisdom.
Perception of lineage as a living, inherited force, and not as a simple memory.
Modern gothic, attentive to tombs, ancient portraits, and cursed or blessed legacies, naturally rediscovers this sensitivity: the dead are not just absent, they are present in a different way.
4.4 Gothic symbolism of necromancy
If we set aside extreme caricatures, necromancy raises essential questions:
How do we coexist with our dead?
What do we do with memory?
What is a lineage, a legacy, a family curse?
How do the stories of the dead shape the psyche of the living?
For the gothic, necromancy becomes an artistic and symbolic motif:
the salon where the ancestors' portraits seem to watch us,
the cemetery where one goes to speak to those who preceded us,
the family library where secrets lie dormant.
5. Bibliomancy: reading in books as in a mirror
5.1 Origins and uses
The bibliomancy consists of opening a book “at random” and reading the first passage that appears, taking it as a message: advice, warning, or an angle for reflection.
This practice is documented:
In antiquity: people sometimes consulted Homer or other sacred texts.
In the Christian Middle Ages: people opened the Bible, the Psalms, or the lives of saints.
In the Renaissance: the great Latin and Greek authors were used.
Bibliomancy assumes that chance is not entirely blind – that synchronicity, to use a more modern Jungian term, brings the right text at the right time.
5.2 The concrete practice
Even though everyone adapts, there are a few constants:
Choice of book:
sacred text (Bible, Quran, etc., according to tradition)
philosophical work
poetry collection
gothic novel or text dear to the person
Form of the request:
silent or formulated
precise question or simply “What message for me now?”
Opening the book:
some close their eyes,
others let their hand stop “of its own accord.”
What counts is not so much the sentence itself as the meaning it awakens in the reader.
5.3 Bibliomancy & gothic: a natural marriage
Imagine:
opening Baudelaire at random during a night of doubt
stumbling upon a verse by Poe that resonates strangely with the moment
consulting Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker as one would consult a literary oracle
Bibliomancy then becomes a serious game, a form of dialogue with a dark and refined literary tradition.
Symbolically, it affirms that:
books are living entities
the library is a sanctuary
the word has an incantatory power
6. Medieval divinatory arts: a Middle Ages obsessed with signs
The European Middle Ages are often caricatured as an age of obscurantism, whereas it is also a period of frenzied reading of signs. There is a wealth of divinatory practices that spanned social classes.
6.1 Geomancy
The geomancy consists of drawing or picking up points (in sand, on the ground, on parchment), then grouping them into figures endowed with meanings.
It was very popularized in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to the point of sometimes being called “the sister of astrology.”
16 geomantic figures
each associated with:
an element (earth / water / air / fire)
a planet
meanings (luck, obstacle, journey, love, etc.)
Geomancy offers a symbolic reading of chaos: random dots become meaning-bearing structures.
6.2 Oneiromancy (reading of dreams)
Dreams are everywhere in medieval literature. They were given particular attention:
dreams sent by God (revelations, warnings)
diabolical dreams (temptations, illusions)
naturalistic dreams (reflections of daily concerns)
Dream interpretation manuals circulated, associating each image with a sign:
snake, water, fire, falling, blood, doors, paths…
From a Gothic perspective, oneiromancy connects with the contemporary fascination for the unconscious, for those nocturnal images that seem to send us coded messages.
6.3 Judicial Astrology
Medieval astrology was not limited to "magazine" horoscopes.
Astrologers were consulted to:
crown a king
initiate a military campaign
set a wedding date
predict the outcome of a venture
The sky was read as a vast coded manuscript that some knew how to interpret.
6.4 Chiromancy, hydromancy and other "-mancies"
Chiromancy: palm reading, lines, mounts, finger shapes.
Hydromancy: visions in water (basins, cups, fountains).
Catoptromancy: visions in mirrors.
Necromancy (already mentioned): contact with the dead.
Pyromancy: reading in flames.
Any malleable matter – water, fire, smoke, wax – becomes a surface for projecting the sacred or the mysterious.
7. Why do occult sciences speak so much to Gothic culture?
7.1 An aesthetic of signs
Occult sciences are made of:
engraved symbols (runes)
coded images (tarot)
mysterious objects (pendulums, mirrors, crystal balls)
ancient texts (grimoires, poetry collections, worn bibles)
For a Gothic mind, fond of symbols, details, and relics, this is an infinite playground for reflection.
7.2 An adult relationship with death and shadow
The Gothic does not deny death; it turns it into an interlocutor.
Tarot cards place Death at the heart of a transformative process.
Ancient necromancy recalls the dialogue with ancestors.
Runes evoke destiny (wyrd), the thread that leads us to our end.
Occult sciences are not there to frighten, but to look the shadow in the face, with clarity.
7.3 Depth against modern superficiality
In a world saturated with notifications and distractions, taking the time to:
draw cards,
trace runes,
let a pendulum swing,
read a passage from a book as a message,
means choosing another temporality: slower, more contemplative, more Gothic.
7.4 Cultural transversality
These practices are bridges between:
Antiquity and the contemporary era
Paganism, Christianity, modern esotericism
Europe, Middle East, Asia, Americas (every culture has its mantic arts)
The Gothic, often nourished by historical, literary, and artistic references, finds in this an immense reservoir of inspiration.
Occult sciences as a cartography of the invisible
Pendulums, runes, tarot, ancient necromancy, bibliomancy, medieval divination…
All these occult sciences do not say the same thing, do not function in the same way, and do not rely on the same symbolic systems.
But they share a common point: they assert that the world is not limited to what we see.
The pendulum amplifies the micro-movements of the unconscious.
The runes offer a grammar of destiny through angular strokes.
The tarot stages the major stages of the soul.
Necromancy reminds us that the dead are still present in the fabric of our lives.
Bibliomancy confirms that books are mirrors, not just objects.
Medieval divination testifies to a world haunted by the reading of signs.
For a Gothic community, this is no coincidence:
occult sciences are a cartography of the invisible – the territory that Goths have always explored through music, literature, fashion, philosophy, and art.
Practicing them, or simply understanding them, is not giving in to superstition: it is acknowledging that human beings have always needed a language to speak to what eludes them.
We invite you to discover our collection dedicated to Gothic occult art, which offers an inspiring overview to deepen your practice, nurture your aesthetic, or simply cultivate your fascination for mystery.
